Alpha Force: System Overload
by crash923
Summary: Alpha force are in North Yorkshire, looking into some Disappearings. But then disasters begin to hit the small county, and they fight for their lives. They also have to fight to keep who they are from their companion, Alex's Dad
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Alpha force and all its rights belong to Chris Ryan, I do own the story line though. And the random fact idea comes from Myrah, not mine either, but I wanted to write some weird facts in. _

_Yeah, so, I've decided to write an Alpha force story, partly to cure writers block from some of my other stories. I should really be writing my Maximum Ride one, but, I don't have a clue what's going to happen. Anyway, I like the books a lot, and wanted to try and write my own story. Hope you enjoy._

_Random Fact#1: Lemmings actually burrow under the snow, and so they can't see where they're going, or where cliffs stop, so they burrow right on, and then fall off cliffs. They are not suicidal._

Alex sat looking at his computer, he wasn't a big fan of the thing, but he sat, with his mouth wide open as he re-read the email. It was from his father, and it said he'd got leave, and was coming to visit Alex in America, where he was visiting his friend, Amber. That was, of course, brilliant, Alex loved his dad, but he couldn't tell his dad about what his friends did, and being a holiday, they would probably be up to something.

The email said that Alex's dad had sorted it all out with Amber's uncle, and he'd probably be on the plane now. But his father didn't know that Alex, Amber, and three other friends were Alpha force, a group who went to disaster areas, and helped out scientists, carrying on the work that Amber's parents had been doing before thy died. Not that his father would really see anything wrong with doing that, but it was also dangerous, and sometimes a little illegal. His father worked for the SAS for goodness sake. He couldn't really do illegal.

"Come on Alex, I need to use the computer." Called Hex from outside the door, as if Alex had been using the bathroom for too long. Hex's was the third member of Alpha force, and he probably did need computers like bodily functions. He was an expert hacker, and code breaker, and before he had joined Alpha force, he had spent more time on the web than in the real world.

"Come in." called Alex, laughing as Hex made a beeline for the second computer in the room, sitting down at it, and looking at it desperately as he waited for it to boot up. He shot Alex what would have been a quick glance, but then he saw the expression on his friend's face.

"What happened, emailed a ghost?" asked Hex, turning back to the computer as it let off the little loading up jingle, and began to tap the keyboard quickly.

"My dad's coming up to visit, us, here." said Alex. That managed to get Hex to look up from the computer.

"No," he breathed, "But, he'll find out."

"No he won't." said Alex. "We'll just make it look like we're having an adventure holiday or something. Then we accidentally keep stepping onto stuff."

"Ok, but mate, it won't work." Hex said.

"Come on, he fell for the general being a good guy, rather than an evil drugs baron murderer." Alex said "Why fear?" Hex rolled his eyes.

"If you say so, but he's smart, he's in the SAS."

"Don't remind me."

ALPHA

Alex, Li, Paulo, Hex and Amber all sat together in Amber's living room. They were all together now, all of Alpha force.

"What time does he get here then?" asked Amber. Alex's phone beeped, and he picked it up, and looked at it.

"Now." he said. The doorbell rang.

"Come back here!" yelled Li, who had not been listening at all, and had been having a pillow fight with Paulo, who was now fleeing the room, jumped out, and ran after him, accidentally hitting Hex on the head with the pillow.

"You are so dead." Hex yelled out after her, and picked up a pillow, running out after them, but only once he'd given Amber a nice whack with it, his green eyes twinkling mischievously. She picked another pillow up, and ran out after him. Alex shook his head, and followed, not being able to stop laughing.

He found them in the main hall, Li and Paulo whacking each other with the pillows for all they were worth, Hex and Amber treating it like a sword fight, and out in the hallway, a man standing in the doorframe, next to the butler, laughing.

"Dad!" Alex called, running up to him.

"Hey ugly." The man grinned.

"How are you, old man?" Alex grinned back. The others were happily still going at the pillow fight.

"These are the friends who are into extreme sports?" asked Alex's dad.

"Um, yeah." Alex nodded. He pointed to Amber, tall, and black, dressed in pink. "That's Amber." Then he pointed to Hex, bright green eyes, pale skin, and brown hair, dressed in a plain black t-shirt and jeans "Hex," then Paulo, with his Argentinean good looks, dressed in a pale blue shirt, and cords "Paulo," Then he pointed to Li, small and Chinese, dressed in red, "Li."

"Well, I'm sure they're wonderful." Said his dad, grinning as he watched Amber knock Hex to the floor, and Li do the same to Paulo. Hex caught sight of Alex's dad, and waved before going back to hitting Amber, but from the floor now.

About five minutes later, they stopped the pillow fight, and went up to greet Alex's dad. They all shook his hand, and then Amber took him to the living room. They all sat down, and a butler came in with some drinks.

"So, are you into pillow fights?" asked Alex's dad.

"Well, abseiling is more my thing, but pillow fights with these guys can be extreme enough for me." Li grinned.

"Prefer computers myself, much better company than people." Hex said, in his usual anti-social way, and Amber dumped her cup of water over his head for it. Hex was un-phased, and just pointed to her, saying, "See."

"What about cows?" said Paulo. "No, you wouldn't like them, they have a habit of chasing you." He was referring to their last trip to his ranch, where Hex had been chased around the ranch by a cow, and everyone had been to busy laughing to help him.

Hex glared, and brought out his palm top from it's place in his belt, beginning to type quickly one it, presumably hacking into some secure sight to calm himself down.

"Nice computer," Alex's father stated.

"Thanks." Said Hex, just as the palm top beeped. He typed a little more, and then raised his eyebrow, but made it too subtle for anyone to notice it, unless you knew Hex well, like Alex did.

"Ok guys, I'm gonna go get changed, and freshen up." Alex's dad said. Alpha force all grinned, and waved goodbye. He left the room. As soon as the door was closed, Hex leaned forwards.

"John's got something for us." He said, grinning. John Middleton was Amber's uncle, the guy who organised everything for them. Their anchor man.

"Where?" said Amber, leaning forwards as well.

"Guess." Said Hex.

"How? Could be anywhere in the world." Li said.

"Well, it's somewhere there's a disaster." Hex smiled, enjoying the fact he'd got them guessing.

"Quick," called Amber, "Alex, turn on the tv, and put it on News 24." Alex did so, and they watched the news for a few minutes.

"_There has been an earthquake in Iran," _

"Is that it?" asked Amber. Hex shook his head.

"_There are rumours of a huge, new, drugs baron in New Zealand." _

"What about that?" Li asked. Hex shook his head again.

"_In Florida, there's been hurricane?" _

"It has to be that." Said Paulo.

"_And surprising everyone, in North Yorkshire, some mysterious disappearings are happening. Our correspondent-" _

"It's that, isn't it?" said Alex. Hex nodded, and grinned,

"At least, that's where we're going."

"But we're not going because of the disappearings?" asked Paulo. Hex shook his head.

"Actually, no. We're going for a training exercise, but, I reckon we should at leaat take a look at the disappearings."

"How did you know it'd be on the news, if we're not going because of that?" asked Amber.

"I have an, err, acquaintance on News 24." Hex admitted, "I just asked him if anything was happening in North Yorkshire."

"Ok, man, that rocks." Li said, high-fiving Paulo, "We get a total new adventure, and some abseiling." She smiled.

ALPHA

Alex knocked on the door, and entered his father's room.

"Hey, old man," he smiled.

"Hey, ugly." His father smiled back. "What do you want?"

"Who says that I want anything?" asked Alex.

"Because if you didn't, you'd be having a pillow fight with your friends." His father smiled.

"Well, yeah. The thing is, tomorrow we're going to North Yorkshire for an adventure holiday."

"You forgot to mention this?"

"No, it's a recent addition to plans." Alex said.

"That's ok, it'll be fun, I like adventure holidays and stuff." Smiled his dad.

"Cool, I'm looking forward to having you there." Alex smiled back. "Night."

He closed the door as he went out into the corridor, and then hit his head on the wall a few times. How the hell was he going to hide Alpha force from his dad, if his dad was on the mission too.

He hit his head one more time, and then left to go back to the room he was sharing with Paulo, and he wondered to himself how Hex always managed to get a room to himself, when Paulo snored so loudly.

_Ok, so there's chapter one. I personally don't think it's long enough, but it seemed a good place to end the chapter What do you think? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Whatever, just please review. I like to get insight on my writing. I'll try and get Chapter 2 up tomorrow. Anyway, bye for now, and would you please press the little bluey/grey,purpley button, and review. _

_Crash 923 _;-P


	2. Yorkshire

_Disclaimer: Alpha force, and all its rights, belongs to Chris Ryan. I do own my story line, and the "System overload" part of the title is mine as well. _

_Yeah, um, sorry that this story took so long to update; I know I said I'd try and do it in a day, and honestly, I probably could have done, but I've had a year of evil teachers, and then me being the idiot I am, I lost the file for like five months, and couldn't write anything, and then been suffering from writers block, so all I can say is please, please don't hate me, please! It's up at least._

_Random Fact#2: An eagle would not be able to watch a television, as their eyesight is different from ours, and unlike ours, doesn't form a certain picture in their brains. This is used so that they can see prey down far below. If they watched television, they would just see a dot moving across the screen very quickly. _

They sat on the plane, Alex mentally still yelling at himself for letting his dad come with them. He had got a middle seat, and so on the aisle side, he had his father, who was reading a book, and on the window side, he had Paulo sleeping, snoring as usual. It was a pretty cheap, economy seat, so he had practically no room to move, but he could turn around at least. He turned to the seat behind him, where the other three were sitting. Hex was sitting in the middle of that row, and he looked ready to kill, with the two girls talking over him.

The stewardess had made him turn off his palmtop, and had told him that he couldn't use it on the plane, due to some sort of standard safety regulations, and even Alex's father had laughed at the look on Hex's face when she threatened to take it away if he didn't turn it off now.

"Ugh, how much longer?" asked Hex, obviously aiming it at Alex.

"Half an hour or so," Alex shrugged. "We should land at Humberside airport at 12:32,"

"Ugh," Hex repeated. It was probably the whole, getting up at 05.00, Hex wasn't a morning person, Alex had discovered when he tried to wake him up.

"You watch the film?" asked Alex. He had slept through the time the film went on, which was a shame as it may have passed the time.

"It was a Hilary Duff thing," said Hex, explaining it all in that sentence.

"Oh, I thought they said it was an action film,"

"Nope, that's apparently been cancelled." Sighed Hex.

"Hey, the film was pretty good." Said Amber, joining in with the conversation.

"It was awful," Li said, "Not one action scene,"

"Yes, I guess," said Amber, sitting back and taking out a book. Li sat forwards, however, and joined in with Amber and Hex.

"So, only half an hour more to survive through," smiled Li,

"Ugh," Hex replied with his favourite saying of the day.

"Mm, eloquent," Li laughed. Alex nodded,

"It's been that, or, 'I need my palmtop' all day." Alex smiled. Hex grinned, and said,

"UGH!" even louder than before,

"UGH!" Alex grinned, and attempted louder.

"UGH!" Then Li decided to try, and she yelled louder than the both of them. A flight assistant hurried over, and glared at them, before politely asking them to stop disturbing the other passengers. They all slunk back in their seats, and began whispering again.

"So ,disappearings in Yorkshire." Alex said.

"It's not quite as glamorous as somewhere like Egypt." Li sighed.

"True," said Hex, "But at least we actually fit in." Li shrugged,

"That's true, I guess."

"And, it's not some totally out of the way place where you can't get a signal and aren't able to get on the internet." Hex smiled.

"Have you been to some of the parts of Yorkshire?" asked Alex.

"Um, no," Hex grinned sheepishly.

"Just, don't get your hopes up too high. Did you know there are actually villages where there is no connection on a bad day." Hex's face went into a look of pure horror.

"Oh, god, why couldn't it be in somewhere big, like, Manchester."

"There _are _cities in Yorkshire." Li said, "There's the biggest, York, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and there's Hull, there're other places as well, but those are the ones I've heard of mostly."

"What are they like?"

"Some of them, like York, are nice, Hull however…"

"Let me guess, we'll be staying in Hull?" Alex asked. Hex grinned.

"Alex, we're out on an adventure holiday, the only adventure around Hull would be running from chavs. Nah, we're up in North Yorkshire anyway,"

"Ok, cool." Alex smiled.

"Passengers, please put your seatbelt on for landing." The, oh so annoying voice over the system said coolly.

ALPHA

They got off at Humberside airport, and looked around,

"Well, this is small." Hex said, simply, and then pulled his bag up off the conveyer belt. Alex saw his as well, and grabbed it, the others all got theirs within the next five minutes, and they went off to the entrance of the airport, leaving, and going out into the bitter wind that always seems to pick up outside an airport.

Alex's dad nudged him,

"Hey, kiddo, you ready to get out to this adventure camp thing then?"

"You got it," Alex grinned, but suddenly he saw something on a newspaper that made him stop.

"Hey, Hex?" he said,

"Yeah?"

"Have there been any more disappearings?" Hex took out his palm top, and quickly typed something into it.

"No, none, why?" Alex pointed the paper. The headline screamed out, "BECCA STILL MISSING!!! "Interesting," Hex said, looking again at his palmtop. "There's nothing about it, at all, but there was yesterday,"

"That's really weird." Said Li.

"What's really weird?" asked Alex's dad, turning around.

"Umm, what Hex can do!" said Li, spontaneously.

"What can he do," Alex's dad looked slightly amused.

"I can touch my nose with my tongue!" Hex said hurriedly, "Watch!" he did it. Alex's dad laughed, and turned around.

"Thank god for Hex's abnormally long tongue." Grinned Li,

"We'll talk later," said Alex. The others all nodded.

ALPHA

They all sat on their minibus, Amber had turned the radio up as loud as possible, and Hex had spent the past twenty minutes on his palmtop, back with his friend at last. Alex's dad looked at him.

"So, is this always what you guys do with your holidays?"

"Absolutely. It's great." Grinned Alex, "We spend hours on a minibus, or something of the sort, depending on what country we're in, then we go do, extreme, sports stuff, you know?" he finished lamely.

"Yeah, cool. So…. Yorkshire's tame for you, then?"

"No! England can be just as exciting as anywhere else," Alex said hurriedly, noting the slightly disappointed look on his dad's face.

"Ok,"

"Hey, Alex, come look at this!" called Hex, Alex, clambered over to Hex's seat, and sat down. "Right, News 24's sight has absolutely no info on these disappearings, and neither does anywhere else. But, yesterday, they were all over the news."

Alex looked over at the site. The main headline was something about a sheep learning how to talk.

"That's really weird." Alex muttered, "What about all the other stuff that was going on last time we looked at this site, New Zealand, Iran, Florida."

Hex quickly typed a few things into the computer.

"No, nothing at all about any of that stuff," Hex shrugged, and looked at Alex helplessly.

"So, our best source for news has completely broken down?" Hex typed a few more things.

"My contact who works there says he doesn't have a clue what's going on, but he'll email me back when he can, with as much info as he can. He says it might be a virus or something, and that it's weird no one else noticed."

"So… Hex, we've got a real mystery at the moment…"

"Yes, what of it?"

"Well, what are we going to do…"

"With your dad?" finished Hex, "Don't have a clue, you COULD always just give up and tell him. We'll persuade him to come along to take care of us."

"No way." Alex said shortly, "That's the worst idea I've ever heard."

"Well, he's gonna find out at some point, why not sooner than later?"

"Just because we can't. It would be awful, I'm telling you."

"Be worse not to tell him." Shrugged Hex, but Alex shook his head.

ALPHA

The mini bus pulled up, and everyone got out, and dragged their bags off the roof, where they had been tied. It was pouring down with rain.

"God!" yelled Amber, "Why couldn't we be abseiling in the Mediterranean? Why YORKSHIRE?"

"It's lovely really," said Paulo, his teeth chattering. Li grinned at them both.

"Just makes it all the more exciting." A lightening bolt flashed in the sky,

"And makes me all the more unhappy we're sleeping in tents," shrugged Hex, but they all managed to put up said loathed sleeping arrangements, and huddle up inside them. The tents were only two man tents, but all six of them managed to huddle up inside just one, and sleeping arrangements were made. Alex grinned secretly, he was with his dad, and Hex was stuck with Paulo's snoring, no getting out of it for him this time. They all sat, a thermo flask of tea in their hands, until eleven o'clock at night, when they decided to go to sleep, and hope that the "abseiling" the next morning wouldn't be too affected by the rain.

Amber and Li were the first to go out, and into the tent, and ten minutes later Hex and Paulo followed, grumbling about how their tent was probably the leaking one, knowing their luck, and how abseiling would be wet the next day.

"Just us left now," said Alex's dad to him, and Alex nodded.

"Left with just the cold, and the rain," sighed Alex, but he was grinning.

"And your dad, thank you," said his father, laughing. "So, what are these holidays normally like, I mean, you always seem to come back happy,"

"Yeah, I guess," shrugged Alex, "I guess it's mainly just being with my friends. It's pretty much the same as any other adventure holiday. We all go abseiling, and canoeing, and crawling down tunnels, and other such things. We ran one of our own a few months back."

That reminded Alex of that number he'd had, belonging to the mysterious johnsmith. None of them had ever actually gone to see the guy, well, not yet anyway, they'd all agreed that maybe it was best for them not to until they'd looked around at other things that they could do, but as Alex's applications were getting turned down, only the other day he'd been thinking about the number.

"Hey, Kiddo, you tired or something?" his dad asked.

"Wha-?"

"You just dozed off for a minute there."

"Oh, yeah, maybe I need some sleep…. Tomorrow should be exciting, anyway, yeah- Night,"

"Night."

_Umm, there you go. I am SO sorry that that took a year, it shouldn't have, but…… Sorry. Please forgive me. Anyway, please review. It would be appreciated, and thanks for all the reviews I have had, I'm glad you like it. And, Ella, yes I have read all the books, a good few hundred times, and Joshyd, The last book, of which I cannot remember the name IS set in England. Conner, yeah, I'm sure the series is out in America. Sorry if any of those answers are too late for questions. I promise the next chapter won't take a year to update, I'll try and get it done within the week. Please press that magic button and review, _

_Crash 923 ;-P_


	3. Fish and Chips!

_Ok, so, yet again that took me forever, so I guess all of you who read this have realised just how awful my timing is. I'll try and get the next one done soon, but I won't make any promises, because you all know what's happened every other time. So- at some point there'll be anothere chapter, and probably fairly soon, because the next bit is actually really quite exciting (I hope!!!!!) I'm listening to Meatloaf at the moment, so I'm in an optimistic mood, which means that I might actually get some more writing done!!!!!!!!! On the bright side, I think that I must have cut down my updating time by about half a year!!!!!!!!!!! Time to celebrate. Please ignore my overuse of exclamation marks today, I appear to be quite happy._

_Random Fact#3:- Bananas aren't actually fruit, they are a type of herbs._

That morning they were all up early, looking around the hills they were camped out on. It was still pouring down with rain. Hex looked at the others.

"We COULD have stayed in America, where the weather was nice."

"Yes, but then there would have been the whole downside of no adventure holiday."

"Shut up,"

They were all soaking wet now, the rain at that point where the water was dripping off their noses, and their hair so wet that it felt it wasn't going to dry.

"Well," said Li, brightly, "I guess we're so wet that we can't get wetter. Might as well go abseil." Everyone looked at her, then Hex shrugged,

"Fine, but afterwards, we get to go and get fish and chips,"

"What?" asked Amber. "Why?" Alex, Hex, Li and Alex's dad all looked at her and laughed.

"Because," said Alex, slowly, "We're in Yorkshire, and it's raining. Fish and chips are the main attraction." Amber gave them a look, and muttered,

"British people," in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Right, you go find the ropes Li, Dad, you get the land rover started up," said Alex. The land rover had been left at the site for them to use, and they were prepared to enjoy their first day, before anyone else coming to the adventure holiday they were on turned up. The plan seemed to be to abseil in the morning, then to go and get fish and chips, then the afternoon was completely empty. Alex was hoping they might get a chance to look into the disappearings, but with his dad with them, it would be harder than if they had been on their own.

They didn't even have the news to help them on this one.

ALPHA

"These are the best fish and chips I have ever had," Hex happily proclaimed as he sat there, wolfing down chips.

"They are pretty good," admitted Amber, who was eating her first ever plate of fish and chips, which Hex had taken off her before she ate, and covered in salt, vinegar and ketchup, then handed them back.

They had found a small fish and chips café after they had driven over to Whitby.

"You know," Hex said, with his mouth full, "Dracula came here," everyone looked at him.

"I didn't know that Dracula was a huge fan of fish and chips," said Li, smiling,

"Well, actually he came to do some deadly work, but I'm sure that he loved fish and chips too." Hex grinned, "And the fudge here's supposed to be good."

"I'd quite like to go up the abbey steps," admitted Alex's dad.

"Great!" said Amber quickly, "I'll come with you."

"And," said Hex, I'm going on a fudge tour, anyone else want to come?"

Alex immediately saw what his friends were doing. They were trying to get a few hours without his dad, to try and find stuff out.

"I'll come," said Alex, and Li and Paulo nodded, and said that they'd join, which was why they were now trudging round Whitby in the pouring rain. They'd gone into the first shop that they'd seen and bought a massive bag of fudge, so as to support their story. Now they were desperately trying to remember where it was they had put the land rover.

"I can't believe that we've gone and lost our massive four by four!" said Paulo.

"Yep," nodded Alex, "It sucks."

"Wait, wait, wait!!!" yelped Hex. "I see it!" It was right next to the fish and chip shop.

"Oh yeah," nodded Paulo, "I'd forgotten we left it there. We must have come out of the back exit.

"Great," said Li, and they all clambered into the land rover. Paulo took the wheel, because so far, he was the only one of them with a driving license. Alex and Li hadn't yet taken the tests, and Hex had almost killed the instructor, so been, obviously, failed.

"Where are we headed?" asked Alex.

"I guess to round where this Becca girl lived. Amber's keeping your dad distracted for a while. You know, if you'd told him, we might have all been able to go!" said Li,

"But we wouldn't have had this massive bag of fudge," pointed out Alex. Hex hit him round the back of the head, "Oh, thanks,"

"Hey, we COULD have had Amber and your dad helping us out with all this, but NO!"

"Come on, he wouldn't have let us do all this stuff."

"Alex, he wanted you to join the SAS, I think that he knows you can deal with danger. I mean, he'd understand better than my mum." Hex said.

"Just get in the car and stop arguing you two," said Paulo, "you're even worse than Hex and Amber when they get together and begin to argue,"

"Whatever," shrugged Hex, "Just let me see if I can find out where all these missing kids lived."

"Ok, find out about that Becca girl first if you can. She's the most recent, so she's probably the one with the traces nearer." Hex nodded, and pulled out his palm top, beginning to type something very quickly onto it.

"So," said Li, "What does your dad know about disappearances then, Alex?"

"Nothing, for god's sake, and you're being just as bad as Hex." Alex groaned, "It's not a good idea to tell my dad just yet,"

"Whatever, Alex, it's your choice, not ours," sighed Li, Hex let out a long groan.

"Something tells me that Hex may have just found something." Paulo smiled, and Hex just sent back a glare.

"You're really not going to believe this, but everyone who's disappeared is at the same children's home." Hex said,

"What do you mean?" asked Alex, puzzled.

"Every one of them was an orphan, and they were all at the same children's home. They're also all around 8 years old," Hex frowned, "So it looks like it's an inside job."

"Why would someone be interested in a few kids from one children's home?" asked Li,

"Do you remember the Scorpion, and what he did?" asked Hex, and Li nodded slowly. "It's a lot like that, I reckon, apart from people who'd want slaves would quite like a little Western kid to add to their collection, so these kids, these "unwanted" kids are being taken away and sold to the highest bidder," Everyone's face paled dramatically. Li was the first to speak again.

"That is just sick," her face scrunched up in disgust, "How are we going to bring these guys down?"

"I don't know," said Alex, shaking his head. "I actually don't think that we can."

"What the hell do you mean, Alex?" asked Li, angrily. "We have to stop these guys, they're sick, and- how can we not be shutting down this organisation?"

"Because this is one of those really big ones, Li. Surely a group like this will have to have transport, money, and they've presumably got their contacts inside all of the major media stations, which is why all information about their activities has disappeared somehow. Plus, I bet they've done it before. If they can cover their footsteps as well as they can, then they could have taken hundreds of children out of England. We actually can't know the size of this thing, which is why we can't do much."

"We can do a hell of a lot," said Hex, "We can save those kids from this orphanage place."

"Yeah," nodded Paulo, "Sorry Li, but I'm with those guys, we are not going up against people smugglers without a massive SAS team at our backs," Alex felt Li's eyes boring into his back, but he said nothing. "So where is this orphanage place?" asked Paulo, and Hex looked through his palm top.

"It's in Sheffield. There's no way we can get there without your dad noticing." He shook his head, "Crap,"

"Maybe a couple of us could try and sneak out tonight," Alex said hesitantly.

"Yeah," nodded Paulo, "Who would go?"

"I can't," said Alex, I'm sharing a tent with him, so it's probably better if I'm one of them who stays, and helps to distract him."

"Ok," said Li, "I'll go, I want to get these scumbags any way that I can."

"I'll go too," said Hex, "Anything to get out of Paulo's snoring." He smiled feebly. "And anyway, I'm just loving every minute of this charming weather."

"That's just great, Hex," laughed Alex, "So you won't mind a nice hike before we get back to camp."

"What do you mean?" asked Hex, looking suspiciously back at them.

"Because you've just been nominated as the one who goes up the hundred steps to the abbey to fetch Amber and my dad back, and then back down again to the land rover."

"I second that nomination," grinned Li, "And I propose that the rest of us break out the fudge,"

"What!" Hex exclaimed, before a mischievous look appeared on his face, and he darted out of the car, and began running up the steps.

"Why does he look so happy?" asked Li, "He has to run up a hundred steps in the pouring rain."

"Maybe he likes the rain more than he lets on."

"Actually," said Alex, "I think he may be smiling because that is the bag of fudge in his hands." He Li and Paulo all jumped out of the car, and began chasing up the steps towards Hex.

ALPHA

"Ahh, my leg muscles hurt so much," groaned Hex, "Maybe running up stairs that fast isn't as good an idea as it seemed in my head." He was stretched out in front of the camp fire, and his legs didn't really hurt, he was just rubbing it in the other's face that he'd beaten them to the top of the steps, and claimed himself a victory slab of nice looking fudge.

"I'd like to point out he had a head start," said Li to Amber and Alex's dad, as they all sat there eating bits of very nice looking fudge.

"So," said Alex's dad, "do you guys feel up to a nice trip out sailing tomorrow?"

"You have to be kidding me," said Hex, "In the North Sea? We'll die!"

"It'll be a challenge grinned Alex's dad, "I bet you'll never have done anything as scary as it though, so if you don't want to..." Everyone laughed, and assured him that it wouldn't be that scary, Amber even throwing in that she thought she might have sailed in even scarier places before. Alex's dad shook his head, "Ok, I cannot keep up with you lot, I'm going to head off to sleep. Don't stay up too late. We want to be up early so we can catch a good tide tomorrow."

"Yeah, cool," nodded Alex, we'll all head back in about half an hour."

"Night,"

As soon as Alex's dad was out of earshot, they all leant in.

"Hex, you and Amber ought to get off around now, otherwise it'll be way too late. Just don't be gone too long, right?"

"Yeah," nodded Hex and Amber,

"Have you got mobiles?"

"What do you think?" said Hex, "You could fax me with my new palm top and you'd still get it."

"And I have an ordinary mobile once you've realised that Hex's new palm top is never going to work," smiled Amber, "Just pass me the car keys."

"Why you?" asked Hex,

"Because, Hex, unlike you I have a drivers license." Amber smiled gleefully, Hex shook his head, and let her head forwards, before whispering to Alex,

"Americans," Alex laughed, and watched as the two headed off into the distance.

_Ok, I have a confession, that fact from earlier came from www. nicefacts .com , because my usual store of knowldge has deserted me for the day. _

_Sorry again about how long it took. Please still review!!! It really does remind me that I have a story going, cos I keep forgetting!_


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